Second Six Weeks

October 26th - 30th

"Hey weirdo," Lucy heard a deep voice greet her. She looked up from unpacking her backpack and saw Natsu standing beside her desk with a playful smile. "How long did you stay up last night 'researching' our topic?"

Lucy humphed at the way he used air quotes around the word researching, "I did only 'research' last night," she answered with her own sarcastic air quotes. "And I didn't stay up that long. Here I will show you." She bent back down to reach into her backpack.

Natsu leaned over her trying to see what it was she was going to show him. She popped back up with her project binder in hand and opened it up to the research paper tab. What he saw then made his mouth drop open. She had typed out a few pages of her own research and printed out at least twenty articles on their subject.

She unclasped the binder and took all the pages out. "Here I printed all this for you, so that you can go through it and decide which parts you would like to write about."

He continued to stare dumbfounded at her as his arm robotically reached out to take the papers. Once the large stack was in his hands his brain started functioning again, "I thought you said you didn't stay up late working on this?"

"I didn't," she answered with a peppy voice. "I went home finished my homework then immediately started working on this. I went to bed around ten, just like always."

Natsu's eyes widened in astonishment, "You mean all you did after school was more schoolwork. You didn't watch t.v. or play games? Did you even eat?"

Lucy pursed her lips, "Of course I ate, I had a salad while I did the research."

Natsu couldn't even bring himself to say anything for a moment. He just stared at her, it was beyond him how someone could spend their entire day doing school work. Or eat a salad for dinner, but that was beside the point. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the teacher walk in to start their class. Knowing he really couldn't afford to get in trouble for disrupting class at the beginning of the day he began to walk back to his desk. A few steps away he stopped and looked back over his shoulder at Lucy, "Well that decides it."

"That decides what?" she asked.

"You really are a weirdo," Natsu answered as he hurried back to his desk.

Something he had learned from the short amount of time he spent with Lucy so far was that he really enjoyed how easy it was to fluster her with his teasing, and the way her face flamed red at his comment made the rest of his day.

lllll

It was the following Monday at lunch and today Natsu was supposed to be meeting with Lucy again after school to work on planning the next part of their project. This part was a video over their selected topic, but they had more freedom to chose how they presented the information. They had two categories to chose from, Natsu liked to think of them as the boring way and the fun way. The boring way was straight informational kind of like a documentary. The fun way, the way Natsu preferred, was to present your topic in the form of a short film that they wrote, directed, and acted in. All he had to do today was convince Lucy that the film would be best, but he could worry about that later.

Right now he was sitting at his usual table and had just started on his fourth slice of pizza when he over heard Erza and Lisanna start discussing the project. "I heard you and Juvia decided to make a movie and she wants Gray to be apart of it," Erza told Lisanna.

"Yeah we're doing our project on how trash in the ocean is harming marine life. So for the video we are going to ask people to be extras as fish and other things," Lisanna answered.

Erza suddenly stood up, "Since Gray is my partner I insist that I be a fish in the video also. La-La-La-La-La!"

Lisanna blanched, "O-of course Erza, I remember how great you were as the lead in our middle school play."

If Natsu remembered correctly Lisanna was either lying or was thinking of a different play, because Erza had gotten stage fright so bad she couldn't remember any of her lines. The whole play had gone terrible from start to finish, but it wasn't all Erza's fault he might recall that himself accidentally setting the curtain on fire might have attributed to it. Although he was pretty sure it was Gray's fault it happened.

He also remembered that all the practices and preparations with everybody had been a lot of fun, and even though Erza was a terrible actress they would probably have a lot of fun making the video together. That's when he got a great idea, "Hey we should all help each other with our videos."

Lisanna turned her attention to him, "Are you sure? Shouldn't you meet with Lucy first and find out what kind of video you will be making and if you will even need extra help?"

"I'm totally going to convince her to make a badass movie about Samurais and you can't do that with only two people," Natsu answered with a smirk.

Lisanna opened her mouth with a retort ready, but Erza cut in eyes shining, "Samurai! You mean I would get to wield a katana! Yes Natsu I think that is a splendid idea, we should all help each other with our videos."

Erza abruptly began to march towards the table Lucy and her friends sat at and Natsu and Lisanna jumped up to follow. Once she reached the table she slammed her foot onto an empty seat and raised her fist into the air, "It has been decided I will be a Samurai and also a fish!"

The whole table had jumped at Erza's sudden announcement and turned to stare at her with confused expressions. Gray knowing Erza the best out of everyone at the table spoke up first, "So what is happening?"

"Well Natsu thought it would be a good idea for all of us to work together on our videos, since we are most likely going to need extra help," Lisanna clarified as she pointed an accusatory finger at him.

Juvia, Levy, and Cana all perked up.

"Oh that sounds like it will be a lot of fun actually," Levy said happily

"Sounds like a party," Cana added.

Natsu noticed that Lucy was still looking a bit nervous. "So whatcha say weirdo, wanna make an awesome movie about Samurai?"

Her cheeks instantly blushed at his teasing, but a pensive expression crossed her face, "We haven't even decided if we are going to make a informational or short film yet." She looked up at Natsu's hopeful expression and Erza's excited face and instantly caved, "But I guess making an awesome movie about Samurais with everyone does sound like fun!"

Natsu wasn't sure if it was a coincidence or not but right when she looked at him with her slight brush and happy little smile he felt a jolt in his chest.

"Then it's settled we will meet in the courtyard after school today and begin work," Erza proclaimed.

After their last class of the day Lucy, Levy, and Juvia walked together outside to meet with their partners. Once they reached the courtyard they saw that Erza, Gray, Lisanna, Cana, and her partner Hibiki Lates were already outside waiting on them. "Hello," they called in greeting.

Wanting to get right to work Lucy and Levy began to set up for their projects at the covered tables, while Juvia ran to greet Gray. A moment later the door slammed open and large man with long black hair and lots of facial piercings, like a lot of piercings even along his nose, stepped out. Right behind him Lucy spotted the pink hair of her partner.

"What the hell are you doing here Metal head, don't you only come to school half days now?" He yelled at the piercings guy.

"I'm here to work on my project Salamander, but I am surprised that you are here. I thought the school would have kicked you out by now."

Lucy gasped when Natsu slammed his forehead against the other guys, who in return pushed his head harder against Natsu's and made a deep growling noise in his chest.

Lucy was unsure of what was happening or what to do about it, she knew she didn't want to see Natsu get into a fight. She was just about to say something to Natsu when Erza called out, "What are you two doing we are here to work not play around."

The boys immediately sprung apart, Natsu raised his and and saluted Erza with an "Aye sir", but the other guy just shrugged and walked over to take a seat by Levy.

Lucy was stunned by the display she had just witnessed. What made it more unbelievable was that nobody else but Levy even seemed fazed by the near fight. When Natsu took the seat next to her she turned her shocked expression to him, "Were you about to get into a fight with that guy?"

Natsu's eyebrow quirked up. "What you mean Gajeel?" He asked as he jerked his thumb towards him. Lucy nodded. Natsu crossed his arms over his chest, lifted his chin in the air, and made a pfft sound, "It's nothin, We fight all the time."

"But you headbutted him. Didn't that hurt?" Lucy asked in concern as she reached out her hand and gently touched his forehead.

Natsu couldn't help the sharp intake of breath he took when he felt warm soft fingers brush against his skin. His eyes locked with Lucy's and she jerked her hand back, but he could still feel a tingling sensations of exactly where she touched him.

Lucy bent her head over her project binder and was thankful for her long hair, since it was helping to hide the blush that was spreading across her cheeks. This was the second time today that Natsu had caused her to blush, she couldn't remember a time before in her life that she had blushed this much. She also couldn't imagine what had come over her and caused her to practically caress Natsu's forehead.

She was relieved she wouldn't have to think about it any longer when Erza called everyone's attention, "Now that everyone is here we should start working."

"Thanks we really needed you to tell us that," Lucy heard Gajeel mumble out quite loudly.

"Okay so how are we going to make an awesome movie about Samurai and the Bushido Code?" Natsu asked.

His face was lit up in excitement and he even had his own pen and paper out for notes. It was the most enthusiastic Lucy had ever seen him look about doing school work and she couldn't help the small laugh that escaped her.

"What are you laughing about?" Natsu asked in an accusatory voice.

"I'm not laughing at you," she answered. "It's just the first time I saw you look so excited about doing school work and it is nice."

"Of course, I'm all fired up!"

"Me too!"

When Lucy had finished writing out a plan for their video she looked up and noticed the chaos ensuing around her. Natsu had gotten bored after Lucy started to discuss background scenery and was now rolling around on the ground with Gray and Gajeel in what must have been a fight, while Juvia stood to the side and cheered on her boyfriend. Cana was asleep, Hibiki was gone, and Erza was standing on top of a table practicing her vocals. Only Lisanna and Levy seemed to be working diligently still. She couldn't help but smile at the scene. Maybe this project would go much better than she imagined in the beginning.

Lover-of-FairyTails

Okay so we are just going to ignore that this is ridiculously late. Sorry guys hopefully I can get on track before the new year.

I hope you enjoy the chapter

Thanks for reading, reviewing, favoriting, and following ^O^